College of Military and Political Basic Education, National University of Defense Technology: Chen Huanlin, Jiang Ran, Liu Yiao
The United States unilaterally announced that it would expand its claims to the outer continental shelf in the Arctic and large areas of the Bering Sea. It is said that the total area of the continental shelf claimed this time is about 1 million square kilometers, about twice the area of California. However, the United States is not a party to the "Contract", and its claims are difficult to be accepted by relevant countries, which will further intensify the geopolitical game with Russia in the Arctic region.
Resources and environment in the Arctic
What is the intention of the United States to expand its sovereignty over the Arctic?
The Arctic region is home to about one-quarter of the world's oil and natural gas, as well as rare metals and fish protein. With the world's natural resources rapidly depleting, control of the Arctic is critical to all countries, and it is about the survival of the countries bordering the Arctic Ocean, and both the United States and Russia are eyeing this land. According to reports, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea gives coastal states the right to establish an exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles. If the land territory extends beyond these limits, the State may extend the border up to 350 nautical miles. Within this context, the state has control over resources, including oil and gas. The United States is trying to obtain the rich resources of the Arctic region in this way, and the confrontation and game between the United States and Russia in the Arctic may further intensify in the future.
According to relevant media reports, one of the reasons why the United States advocates expanding sovereignty over the continental shelf in regions such as the Arctic is to obtain more minerals for the production of car batteries. However, the United States has increased its investment in Arctic affairs, not only because of minerals, energy and other interests. Behind the scenes, there are more strategic needs of the US side in terms of trade and military. The Arctic shipping route connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, significantly shortening the voyage between Asia and Europe and North America, reducing shipping costs, and making it an important maritime trade route. As the Arctic ice cap melts, more areas near the Arctic are navigable, and expectations for commercial shipping and tourism in the Arctic are rising. By expanding its territorial sovereignty in the Arctic Circle, the United States has actually established its leadership position in the Arctic and has made huge economic gains in doing so. After the Houthis pressured Israel by "striking merchant ships", the United States immediately formed a "ten-nation coalition" to escort ships in the Red Sea, which proves that a key shipping lane is very important for a country's strategic deployment and military operations, and the Arctic shipping route has such potential. Control and jurisdiction over the Arctic shipping lanes are becoming the focus of international strategic games.
Bering Strait Passage
Some experts said: "The Arctic region is the last link in the strategic encirclement of Russia by the United States." After the escalation of the Ukraine crisis, the United States actively attracted Sweden and Finland to join NATO, and repeatedly launched military exercises with Nordic countries with more than 10,000 people facing the Russian battlefield, which shows that the hostile position of the United States and Russia in the Russia-Ukraine war has become a fact, and the expansion of sovereignty in the Arctic region is also aimed at competing with Russia in geographical and geopolitical space, encircling and suppressing Russia, and accelerating the formation of a strategic posture of encirclement of Russia.
Sabre-rattling - Arctic sovereignty has led to a confrontation between the United States and Russia
As early as February 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a presidential decree to re-establish the Ministry of Far East and Arctic Development, which aims to improve the efficiency of Russia's management and development of the Arctic. In April of the same year, Putin said in a speech at the fifth international forum on "Arctic-Dialogue Zone" that Russia would draft and adopt a development strategy for the Russian Arctic region until 2035 in the near future. In addition to adding more air bases and anti-aircraft missiles in the Arctic Circle, Russia has launched the Arctic Clover military base. In terms of troop deployment, Russia unveiled a new Arctic Command consisting of four Arctic brigade combat teams, and renovated and put into operation 14 Soviet-era airfields and six military bases.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that developing the Arctic is a priority for Russia. The Arctic is an important intermediate staging area, and fighter jets can quickly reach any point in the Northern Hemisphere. Therefore, the strategic position of the Arctic region is extremely important. The United States is salivating over its sovereignty over the Arctic region, and Russia's troop build-up in the Arctic has attracted the attention of the US military, which is therefore stepping up its operations in the Arctic. At the same time, the countries surrounding the Arctic, except for Russia, are all NATO countries, and in the future, the dispute between Russia and NATO over strategic resources will become more intense.
In July 2020, the U.S. Air Force released its first Arctic Strategy Report, emphasizing that further strengthening the U.S. Air Force's operational superiority in the Arctic region may have a profound impact on the construction and development of the U.S. Air Force and Space Force and the security situation in the Arctic region. In March 2021, the U.S. Army released a new Arctic strategy titled "Reclaiming Dominance of the Arctic," in which the U.S. Army will establish a two-star warfighting command to lead specially trained and equipped combat brigades to operate more effectively in the region. The establishment of the new combat command ensures that the units operating in the Arctic region are in a high state of combat readiness and are ready for rapid deployment and can complete the task of rapid force projection.
As a result, the military activities of the United States and Russia in the Arctic have become increasingly frequent, and the possibility of friction and conflict between the two sides has greatly increased. But Russia currently has an absolute advantage in the number of heavy icebreakers, the anti-icing devices on the warships, and the comparison of military bases in the Arctic. It is not difficult to see from the fact that the United States and Russia have raised their military deployments in the Arctic by their strategic location and economic interests, and the temptation of the strategic location and economic interests in the Arctic region has made disputes and contentions in the Arctic region more and more common, and the ice and snow will gradually melt, and the ice will become a "hot land."
U.S. Arctic Claims Map
The people's hearts are back-to-back - the US Arctic proposition is difficult to recognize
The Arctic continent and islands cover an area of about 8 million square kilometers, and its territorial sovereignty belongs to the eight Arctic countries of Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States. The Arctic Ocean covers an area of more than 12 million square kilometers, and the relevant maritime rights and interests are shared by coastal states and countries in accordance with international law. There is no single international treaty on Arctic affairs, which is governed by international treaties such as the Charter of the United Nations, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Spitsbergen Treaty, and general international law. In addition, the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, established under the Convention, is responsible for considering submissions made by coastal States concerning the outer limits of their continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles. James Kraska, a professor of international law of the sea at the U.S. Naval Military Academy, pointed out that because the U.S. claim to extend the continental shelf has not been endorsed by the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, it is difficult for other countries to accept. Rebecca Pincas, director of the Polar Institute at the Wilson Center, a U.S. think tank, said: "The unilateral delimitation of the continental shelf by the United States in circumvention of the Convention may anger other countries, many of which will have opinions about the way the United States is doing."
According to international law, the Arctic and the Arctic Ocean surrounding it do not belong to any country, and the actions of the United States have no basis in international law, and the international community has the right not to recognize the unilateral claims of the United States. The United States' claim to expand sovereignty not only violates international law and international order, but also undermines peace and cooperation in the Arctic region, aggravates tensions in the Arctic region, and is not in line with the long-term interests of the United States itself.